Shining light on dark money

The Texas Legislature isn't ordinarily high on the list of groups with reformist tendencies, and yet lawmakers this week are doing what they can to mitigate at least a part of the harmful effects unleashed by the U.S. Supreme Court's unfortunate Citizens United ruling. That's the landmark decision that says the restriction of political spending by corporations or labor unions is a violation of free speech.

Senate Bill 346, sponsored by state Sen. Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo, would require non-profits set up under section 501(c)(4) of the federal tax code to publicly disclose contributors who write checks of more than $1,000 to any "dark-money" group that spends $25,000 or more on political campaigns.

The bill is designed to shine light on nonprofit "issue advocacy" groups that are allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money on their favored candidate as long as they don't campaign directly for that candidate. Political action committees (PACs) have to divulge information about the money they raise and spend, but these issue advocacy groups, basically super PACs with innocuous names such as American Crossroads (Karl Rove's group), can hide in the dark.

In the wake of Citizens United, these Super PACs have become the favorite campaign-finance vehicle for large, publicly traded corporations eager to influence elections without revealing themselves. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, groups that used the 501(c)(4) designation spent more than $300 million in the 2012 campaign cycle.

Seliger's bill passed the Senate on Monday by a vote of 23-6. The House version, sponsored by state Rep. Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth, passed on Tuesday, 95-52. It now goes to the governor, who will be sorely tempted to veto the measure.

Michael Quinn Sullivan, the conservative activist whose Texans for Fiscal Responsibility tirelessly seeks to push Texas Republicans further and further rightward, opposes the measure. When Sullivan speaks, Perry listens, and on this bipartisan effort to promote transparency in government, that's unfortunate.

We would urge the governor to think of the people first, not lobbyists, big corporations and campaign donors.